The Expulsion of 1609–1614 and the Polemical Writings of the Moriscos Living in the Diaspora

10.1163/9789004279353_017

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Chapter Summary

The word polemics is derived from the Greek polemiké techné, and originally signified the argumentational style aiming at defeating an opponent in front of an audience, contrary to apologetikós logos, which in ancient culture meant the defending, justifying style. In the sixteenth and seventeenth century the word polemic began to be used in modern languages for a "war of words", which remains its present-day meaning. Two phases in the history of Morisco polemics against Christianity can be distinguished. The first phase is the period between the forced conversions which took place in Granada, Castile, Navarre and Aragón at the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century and the Expulsion of 1609-1614. The second phase is the period after the Expulsion, which lasted well into the seventeenth century.